NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

November 1st, 2006

It was the most senior judge in England, Lord Phillips. Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, who criticised the criminal justice system and who warned that prison overcrowding is “absolutely fatal” for efforts to tackle the treatment of inmates.

EDITORIAL It was the most senior judge in England, Lord Phillips. Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, who criticised the criminal justice system and who warned that prison overcrowding is “absolutely fatal” for efforts to tackle the treatment of inmates. He was speaking earlier this year when it was predicted that the prison population would pass 80,000 before the end of 2006, the highest figure in our prison history. Now we know that this prediction was correct. There must surely be a better way than this. At last year’s Ampleforth Day, in our J&P workshop, we were challenged when we argued that Michael Howard’s assertion, “Prison works” was palpably untrue as so many of those sent to prison, re-offend when they are released. We suggested that a system of Restorative Justice would be much better for most offenders. The Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum has prepared a study pack on this.

We are particularly grateful to Fr Pat Cope, the Bishop’s Advisor on prisons, for contributing to this newsletter, writing with his considerable experience of chaplaincy at Prison and Youth Offender Institutions. Chris Dove

Note: the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission.

Justice that Heals There is too much that is wrong with our prison system according to Judge Michael Findlay Baker, resident judge at St Albans Crown Court writing in a Guardian article in June of this year. “Prison makes many criminals, particularly youngsters, worse in one sense and is highly undesirable. It mostly only works in the sense that, when someone is incarcerated, they are not committing offences. Prison is not designed to promote rehabilitation, particularly for sex offenders. That knowledge does make me feel uncomfortable about sending some people to prison, but sometimes I have no alternative; I simply don’t have the independence not to pass a sentence on someone whose character and personality may be such that prison will only make him worse.” Then at the end of June, following the report on the murder of a young offender in Feltham Young Offenders Institution, we learnt that 90% of the 11,000 young offenders in prison, were mentally disordered and 10% were psychotic. As a speaker from the Prison Reform Trust said, “prison is the worst possible place for mentally ill offenders”. There are, however, ways of improving the situation. At the start of 2006, in an article in the Tablet, Rachel Billington, a trustee of The Longford Trust reported on an interview she had had with Baroness Scotland, the Home Office Minister, in which she spoke of the launch of a new five-year government strategy aimed at reducing rates of re-offending. In the article Rachel Billingon wrote: “The idea, simply, is that an ex-offender should be helped by those outside the prison walls because they make up the community in which he or she will live.” Baroness Scotland believes it is “unrealistic to expect men and women with multiple problems to be able to sort themselves out without consistent one-to-one support.” Such a scheme would “provide the best chance to sort out the labyrinth of court, prison and probation that daily confounds the prisoner” according to Rachel Billington. This is the process described here by Fr Pat Cope.

PATHWAYS TO REDUCE REOFFENDING

The Prison Service and the National Offender Management Service are committed to a new strategic focus on offender management and reducing the risk of re-offending. The pathways to reduce re-offending are as follows: • Accommodation • Education, training and employment • Mental and physical health • Finance, benefits and debt • Drugs and alcohol • Attitudes, thinking and behaviour • Children and families • Prolific and priority offenders • Voluntary and community sector involvement

Offender Management is looking at an integrated approach to assessment, sentence planning and delivery of sentence requirements for all offenders. The whole idea is to begin to provide a “joined up” approach between the prison and probation services. It will also provide a more “person centred” approach to caring for an individual offender and help to decrease the likelihood of re-offending – a particular challenge for prolific offenders.

Each offender will now have a named offender manager who will be responsible for their whole sentence plan, including both in custody and on release. This will include a role for staff acting as offender supervisors and case administrators to ensure that the assessment, sentence planning, implementation and review processes operate effectively and that offenders are engaged and motivated to work towards their sentence plan targets.

The “pathways” which are listed above are the main key areas which an offender will be encouraged to focus upon in relation to his/her sentence and particular needs. There is a place for faith groups in the Voluntary and Community sector. Most prison chaplaincies now either fall directly under the prison’s resettlement group or work very closely with them.

The key principles in this new process include:

CONTINUITY – offender management will provide this throughout the whole sentence – both in the prison and out in the community after release. This will be achieved through retaining a single Offender Manager throughout the sentence who will be based in the community. Whilst in custody, an Offender Supervisor will be the key person for day to day delivery of the sentence plan which will have been drawn up as soon as the offender is convicted.

COMMITMENT – this process demands commitment from those involved. Staff will be encouraged to support, coach and motivate offenders to engage actively in the whole process for the benefit of all involved.

CONSISTENCY – a consistent message and approach must be maintained through the whole sentence. It must be “joined up thinking” and everyone must have a stake in the process.

CONSOLIDATION – responsibility for coaching and support prior to interventions will also be backed up by post-intervention work on consolidating the learning and putting it all into practice as actively and as soon as possible.

The whole process has great potential and opportunities for an offender, their managers and their local community to be involved actively in the process of addressing offending behaviour and preparing someone for release – and providing the support necessary to do as much as possible to help them not to reoffend. We can all be actively engaged in this process at different levels and where appropriate. In the end it will benefit both the individual offender and the community to which they will be returning. Fr Patrick Cope

“Prison works” 2 John Reid, the Home Secretary, is seeking to build so as to increase the number of places in prisons by 8000. This will show that he is trying to get his office into a “fit for purpose” state and so placate the majority of the public who believe offenders are having too easy a time. This is not being intelligent. If more than half offenders will re-offend on release, we will never have enough prisons. We need a criminal justice system that only sends to prison those who are a serious risk to society because they are violent. We need an effective prison regime that produces changes in people on their release so that they do not re-offend, and importantly, ensures that those who are suffering from mental health problems receive proper treatment, which is usually not by being sent to prison. According to The Howard League for Penal Reform two-thirds of women re-offend within two years of their release. 56 women killed themselves in prison last year. This is evidence that far too many women are being sent to prison with very serious consequences: from 1994 to 2004 the women’s prison population increased by 147% . According to Home Office Research, 66% of women in prison have dependent children under 18. 34% had children under the age of five. Each year it is estimated that more than 17,700 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment and 150,000 children have a parent in prison. Nearly a third of prisoners’ children suffer significant mental health problems, compared with 10% of children in the general population. While acknowledging that good family ties can significantly reduce re-offending, almost half of people in prison lose contact with their families during the sentence. Sources: Prison Reform Trust and Action for Prisoners’ Families

Restorative Justice Alan Paton, author of Cry the Beloved Country, exposing the sins against South Africa wrote: “To punish and not restore – that is the greatest offence of all.” The Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum has prepared a study pack explaining what is meant by Restorative Justice. It covers five or six sessions and could be used with a church or school group. This is an outline of that paper.

Our current criminal justice system is based on retributive justice; that is, a crime is committed and so someone has to be punished in order for justice to be done. Home Office statistics show how unsuccessful this approach has been. In 1984 the average prison population was 29,600. By 1974 it was 38,867, by 1984, 43,295 and today the total is over 79,000 and rising. Crime fell between 1995 and 2004 by nearly 40% and the chance of being a victim is said to be the lowest it has been for 20 years. The number of women in prison has more than doubled. Many prisoners have significant mental health problems; this includes serious drug or alcohol misuse. More than half the prison population have a reading age no better, or poorer than, that expected of an 11 year old. One third were not in settled accommodation prior to imprisonment.

Restorative justice is, at its heart, about healing broken relationships through a dynamic process. More than one person is involved – there is the perpetrator, the victim and the wider community. Restorative justice attempts to heal the hurt caused to the victim but also recognises the value of the perpetrator and seeks to restore him or her to their place within the community. This involves a process in which all concerned need to be involved. The first step is Recognition: we have to recognise that we have done something wrong before we can move on, because refusal to do so becomes a barrier to relationships. Recognition is not just required of the perpetrator. It also has to happen for the victim as she or he recognises the perpetrator as a fellow human being, and for the community as it recognises his or her place within the community. Owning up starts the process of taking responsibility for the wrong done.

The next step is Repentance. Repentance is part of the healing process. It is not just feeling remorse for what we have done wrong, repentance means turning round and going the other way. Turning away from the things that led to the crime being committed and resolving to live differently in the future. The recent increase in the prison population is not due to an increase in the level or seriousness of crime coming before the courts. It has more to do with the likelihood that a particular type of offender will be sent to prison, and in the average length of prison sentences. Of those prisoners released in 1997, within two years, well over half had been convicted of another crime and a third were back in prison. For young men, the proportions were over two-thirds and nearly half. Sentences served in the community, under probation supervision, are only slightly more effective in reducing re-offending. But they do cost much less than the £37,000 a year needed to keep someone in prison.

Reparation follows – making up for what we have done wrong by facing the person we have harmed. It can help to listen to the other and to try to understand one another. A different form of reparation is ‘making the punishment fit the crime’, such as young graffiti artists being asked to clean up their community.

And then, Reconciliation. The whole emphasis of restorative justice is that the offender, having recognised his or her offence, having repented and made reparation, is reconciled with his/her victim and community once more. This is as important for the community as it is for the individuals. It requires a willingness on the part of both parties to talk about what has happened, to offer and receive forgiveness and to put the past behind them. Only then can the relationship be fully restored.

Community mediation schemes have been set up in many areas of the country to enable people to resolve difficulties and become reconciled before they result in behaviour that might lead to civil or criminal proceedings in a court of law. They can provide mediators in conflict situations – disputes between family or neighbours, or teach mediation skills to children and young people so that they can resolve conflicts in schools and be better prepared to deal with confrontations in the adult world. Surely there is a role for the church here.

Finally Restoration. The best example of the whole process of restorative justice is the parable of the prodigal son. He had insulted his father, fractured family relationships, and brought shame on his family. Eventually he realised what he had done, was mortified, repented and wanted to make reparation. Fortunately his father was a forgiving man and welcomed him back. But his brother wasn’t prepared to do the same. For that family to be truly reconciled the elder brother needed to be reconciled to his younger brother. Of course there are some people who represent a danger, and who, for the safety of the community and for their own safety, need to be removed form the community. But they are in the minority and many of them should be in mental health facilities and not in prison. They like everyone else were not created evil, because, like everyone else, they were created in the image of God. Source: Church’s Criminal Justice Forum

Commission contacts Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398 Sr Mary Walmsley CJ Secretary 01904 464919 Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621 Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043 email: dove.whitby@ukgateway.net or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS website:www.ayton.info/middlesbroughjp

Programme for 2007 Our annual Peace themed commission meeting, with the title From Violence to Wholeness, will be at St Bede’s Pastoral Centre, York on 20 January. Enclosed with this newsletter are flyers for the Hull conference commemorating 250 years since the passing of the Abolition of Slave Trade Act. Titled “Let my people go” it promises to be an exciting event. Lord, support with your love prisoners, their families and friends, prison staff and all who care. Heal those who have been wounded by the activities of others, especially the victims of crime. Help us to forgive one another, to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly together with Christ, in his strength and in his Spirit, now and every day. AMEN.